Security News > 2024 > June > FBI recovers 7,000 LockBit keys, urges ransomware victims to reach out

The FBI urges past victims of LockBit ransomware attacks to come forward after revealing that it has obtained over 7,000 LockBit decryption keys that they can use to recover encrypted data for free.

"From our ongoing disruption of LockBit, we now have over 7,000 decryption keys and can help victims reclaim their data and get back online," the FBI Cyber Lead said in a keynote.

"We are reaching out to known LockBit victims and encouraging anyone who suspects they were a victim to visit our Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov."

At the time, police seized 34 servers containing over 2,500 decryption keys, which helped create a free LockBit 3.0 Black Ransomware decryptor.

In recent years, other Lockbit ransomware actors have been arrested and charged, including Mikhail Vasiliev(November 2022), Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev aka Wazawaka, Artur Sungatov and Ivan Gennadievich Kondratiev aka Bassterlord.

The U.S. State Department now offers $10 million for any information that would lead to LockBit leadership arrest or conviction and an extra $5 million reward for tips leading to the arrest of LockBit ransomware affiliates.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-recovers-7-000-lockbit-keys-urges-ransomware-victims-to-reach-out/